Madman Tyrant Villain and Murderer (aka Balem's Backstory)
by Ignobilis
Summary: A look at the childhood and past of Balem Abrasax, before we see him for the first time in the movie. Also details a bit of the past of the rest of the characters. Added scenes make it different from the original flashback sequence in the original "Days of Eternity". Linked to the other story in this category "Thereafter..." Considerable non-canon material. Dun like dun read.
1. In the Beginning

_Author's Note:_

_I only wrote this fic cos I love the movie and I am having huge writer's block on my own work related writing._

_How I began:  
Although I am as fascinated as anyone with the idea of Balem Abrasax having been the maybe lover of his mother, I do not see ANY evidence in the movie to support this idea. I mean, I think when he touched Jupiter on her chin, the emotion we see there is one of fear/ guilt/ regret/anger of having murdered his own mother. It can in no way be construed as a sexual action…. Except by vast extrapolation into realms of probability…._

_I did a bit of armchair psychology on Mr. Abrasax…. I mean, what kind of a person is he? How does he live? I decided to do a fic about the daily life of the Abrasaxes…. Routine, food, fashion, habits, etc… I believe it will reveal a lot about the interstellar culture which they originate from, thus giving us better understanding of where they all come from._

_What's Happening Now:_

_I did a bit of flashback to explain his past because otherwise his actions subsequently WOULD NOT MAKE ANY SENSE. I kinda see histories as a sort of progression. One action leads a man to do another and another. I personally do not think that Balem himself is insane. In fact, he is quite like many of the villains of our age and time. Potentially brilliant, of high intelligence, driven…. etc… I do think that given the right conditions, all his actions might even appear rational to him as an individual._

_I also chose to break off the history/flashback bit into a separate fic which I will work on when inspiration strikes me. This is done so that I can tell his story in the true 3__rd person perspective. Reason? Well, in the original story, Balem sees his life through HIS OWN EYES and memories. That is really rather limiting, because, a man is also what others perceive of his actions. Of course, a man might for his own sanity, choose to ignore the opinion of others, but how we see him, and how others see him is what makes him who he is as a character._

_Also, it is tremendously bad writing, in my opinion at least, to drag a flashback as long as I have with the original "Days of Eternity" (which will be completely changed). However, I do feel it is impossible to understand Balem Abrasax without understanding his past. One thing is clear to me from the movies. Balem functions and thinks at a higher level than Jupiter, probably because of his many 1000s of years of experience. I do not think he is an easy person to handle and probably might even be a recurring villain if Jupiter Ascending were done as a sci fi series. Also, it does occur to me that, it would likely be quite difficult to really kill such a villain, because any good villain 1000s of years old with equally experienced henchmen _(ie. Chicanery and other OCs) _would have made all kinds of preparations against final death, especially with the availability of high level of advanced science._

_I would have put this fic in a "series" type category with my other Jupiter Ascending fic... BUT... this site does not have that function. The A03 site does have a "Series" function and it has made cataloging and stuff easier._

_Glossary of Terms:_

_1.__ Medicina (pl. medicinae) – the title equivalent of "medical practitioner" on Earth. I somehow did not think that the title of "doctor" would work in this context. It implies so many things that are not-applicable to the space docs. For one thing, the space docs do not have any form of Hippocratic Oath.'__  
_

_Links:  
Links to _**"Thereafter…"**

* * *

The earliest memory Balem Abrasax still retained was the first image he ever saw as a child. His eyes opened, and he saw a blurry image of a woman with dark hair leaning over him.

"He's perfect," she said. As the image was not entirely in focus, her words reached him like voices to a person submerged in water. There were also other voices, but they were vague and distant. This dark haired woman stood over him, with a bright light hanging overhead.

Although he was too young then to know what he saw, Balem knew that that was probably his first image of the facility where he was birthed and that the woman was his mother, Seraphi Abrasax. Like all children born to the Entitled, Balem did not emerge from his mother's womb, but was grown from her DNA and the DNA of his sire, another noble-born human. He spent his first months as an embryo in the amniotic fluid of his birth cylinder. He knew that Entitled women who desired to have children went to a special medical facility where the DNA of both parents were taken and used to create a child. There was a bit of genetic manipulation at this stage to ensure that the child would be free of all genetic defects. After all, to be Entitled was to be free of all disfiguring marks and oddities that were the lot of the Lowborn and the Spliced. All embryos who could not be manipulated into perfection were discarded and ground up to create some of the raw materials that were used in the production of ReGenX. Many embryos might be created from the pairing of the DNA, but only one would ever been chosen to be the child of the couple. The resulting raw materials culled from the discarded DNA and his own umbilical cord would then be handed to the care of the family whose DNA was used to create the embryos. This genetic material would then be deposited into a genetic database which would be used to call up his exact genetic sequencing whenever he needed to rejuvenate his body, to ensure genetic integrity through the ages of his long life.

Soon after he was taken out of the birthing containment unit and was officially "born", Balem stayed for a week or so in the birthing facility where he was carefully monitored by medical machines and checked for illnesses and flaws before his parents took him back. It was not a comfortable week as he was constantly poked and prodded by cold machine appendages as samples were taken from him for testing.

He was only released to his parents when the birthing facility administrators were satisfied he had met the minimum requirements of their quality control. He exactly ten fingers and toes and grey eyes that matched, perfect little ears, a pink nose and a mouth that cried loudly whenever he felt hungry or needed to be cleaned. As far as the administrators were concerned, he was healthy and 100% human without any additional non-human genetic "enhancements."

After about a week in the birthing facility, he was wrapped in a soft, white cotton-like baby wrap of some natural fibre that was monogrammed with the name "Abrasax," and presented to his eager parents. His name was entered into the interstellar database containing the names and records of all beings currently in existence in the civilised worlds of the interstellar commonwealth. A special seal-making bureaucrat stamped out a special seal with his family heraldry and his own personal symbols, usually the date, time and location of his birth and imprinted that seal on the underside of the baby's right forearm. This seal was like his signature. It was linked to all current information pertaining to the child, such as the location of his place of residence, his place as a scion of a particular family and also his status as a member of the Entitled, the noble class of the interstellar commonwealth. This seal would also be used to stamp his approval on all legal decisions made by him in the future. The imprinting also captured a map of his genome which would be used in the future to ascertain his identity.

The child cried a little when the imprinting was done. The feeling of being imprinted resembled the bite of an ant or in fact, many small ants on the same patch of skin.

He slept during his trip back in the transport to his family residence, a vast and magnificent palace by the shores of a lake. This was the first instance that Balem ever felt comfortable. After a week of being constantly prodded by metal appendages, he was happy to curl up in the warmth of his baby wrap. He felt safe in the strong arms that carried him. However, the face that looked down upon him was a blurry image of a man with fiery, red hair.

Soon, this man handed him over to a woman with dark hair and a massive fan of hairpins sticking out from her coifed hair. This was the same woman he had seen some time back in the birthing facility.

Like most Entitled children, his mother handed him over to a nanny the moment that her arms got tired of carrying him and he needed to be fed. His nanny was a deer splice, a woman with similar dark, wavy hair to his mother, dark brown eyes and tanned skin. He was fed with a special formula that was made entirely identical to breast milk. Seraphi did not breast feed him because it was not customary for Entitled women to breast feed their children. Also, she seldom carried him when he was feeding from his bottle because she did not really know how to properly carry a child. He squirmed around quite a bit and she nearly dropped him a few times. Fortunately, he was saved from serious injury by the deep, soft carpets she had installed in his room. Finally, she did not produce any breast milk since she did not actually carry him inside of her.

As a child, Balem did not really like being carried by Seraphi. He frequently sneezed whenever she carried him. There was this smell about her that tickled his nose. Seraphi wore perfume, and at times, that scent was much too strong for Balem. In fact, the first natural scent he recognised was the smell of his deer splice nanny, Amina.

Like most splices, Amina was an indentured servant, that is to say, she was a slave of the Abrasax family. She did not wear any kind of collar like the slaves of old, but instead had a tracking implant that would seek out her location no matter where she was. Splices usually never ran away from their masters or the family that they worked for, so there was no need for any kind of special restraining device or enclosure to prevent them from leaving. Most Entitled families had splices. They were efficient, and bred for the tasks they were designed for, far cheaper to keep and maintain than human labourers and were obedient to a fault.

A splice had no real status in society. They were always placed at the last position when it came to receiing any kind of care or benefit. In a lot of Entitled families, splices were often regarded as nothing more than a sort of possession that could be traded or sold by their human masters. In spite of all of that, most splices preferred to work for their families, loyalty was a trait that was programmed into each splice. And often the loyalty of a splice towards his human master was stronger than the loyalty of humans to each other. Moreover, a family provided the splice with food, shelter and other comforts. And if a splice worked for an important master, his own status would also be higher compared with other splices of the same level.

Moreover, not all splices were genetically equal. Despite massive genetic manipulation, some splices always turned out to be inferior or superior to those of his kind. This difference was most predominantly seen in the lycantant splices, who were bred for roles in the military and security. The difference was less pronounced in deer splices and in other types.

Amina was chosen for her appearance, many Entitled mothers often picked nannies that resembled themselves in one way or another, and for her gentle and nurturing disposition.

She lived in a small room beside Balem's room. When he first arrived, she had a small cot in the same room as his crib. This was so that she could keep an eye on him at all times and take care of the constant napping and feeding that all babies go through in the first few months. She was rather glad to have been given sole charge of the child. Some Entitled children had several nannies, and she knew that sometimes the nannies argued about how to best look after the child they were assigned to. Also, she did not like the idea of having to compete for the favour of her charge with several other splices. She was quite proud of that fact that she was the nanny of Balem Abrasax, the child positioned to be the primary heir of the Abrasax empire. That was something that gave her considerable status in society.

The child grew amazingly fast. He was able to crawl and then walk by the time he was one and a half. Also, he displayed an amazing curiosity regarding his surroundings. He was not allowed to leave the family compound, but he loved being outside and running around in the sun. He would crawl around as soon as he was taken out of his crib after feeding and find a spot of sunlight on a nearby balcony and crawl towards it. His own room overlooked the nearby lake and Amina would often see him looking through the narrow gaps in carved stone banisters of the marble balcony at the cool, blue lake. She screamed when she first saw it, but fortunately for everyone concerned, the gaps were way too narrow and small for even a baby to slip through them.

The first few years of his life were really quite blissful and happy. His always had the company of Amina and Seraphi seldom dropped by to see him because she was preoccupied by the business of the family. In fact, it could be said that she left him in the care of the splice servants until the age of four, when she came back to the residence. The residence itself was on the idyllic and lush planet of Calidan, a green world that was occupied by many Entitled families and used to grow all kinds of exotic plants and flowers.

It was around his fifth birthday when Seraphi decided to drop by for a visit. Amina had him cleaned up and dressed in short tunic and soft pants. She had him rehearse calling out to his mother and father the moment he saw them and to run over and give them a big hug.

Balem remembered waiting for the arrival of his parents in the big marble hall that faced a large landing pad. He was sucking on his thumb, which his nanny immediately made him take out of his mouth the moment she spotted him doing it. He did not have to wait too long because a silvery transport descended from the sky and hovered over the ground of the landing pad. The door opened, and a tall man in dark, silky clothes with long, flowing sleeves stepped out. Balem ran towards the transport trying his best to look for his mother, but instead, the tall man went towards him and picked him up in his strong arms. Although it had been years, he vaguely remembered those same strong arms that carried him in a baby wrap and took him home from the birthing facility.

"Papa!" he cried out joyfully, luxuriating in the bear-like hug of his father.

"My son!" a rich baritone voice responded.

All was well, and Balem basked in the love of his father who spent the afternoon carrying him, and bouncing him around on the knee. It was nearly nightfall and close to his sleeping time before his mother arrived. Balem was yawning and had curled up on his father's lap by the time she walked into his nursery.

"Balem, wake up, your mother's here," the voice of his nanny broke his semi-slumber.

He did not remember much from that first meeting, except that he saw a tall, pale woman with dark hair and many golden hairpins sticking out from her elaborate bun.

She opened her arms to him and he remembered bouncing off his father's lap into her arms. Then it hit him, the sickly scent of her perfume. He wrinkled up his nose and sneezed almost into her face and then he saw her own nose wrinkle up and then she looked like she was going to cry.

"What is that?" she was pointing at something on his face.

Amina hurried forward with a silk handkerchief, as if to wipe a spot from his pinkish skin. She stared at his face in confusion and then his father stared at him, unsure of what Seraphi was pointing at.

"He's spotted!" she burst out in tears. Although it was quite late in the night, they could all see the perfect line of little brown spots that lined the cheek and perfect bump of his little nose.

"I am sure its normal," Amina said. "Most small children have odd spots on their skin in places. They usually grow out of it."

"My son is not a deer splice!" Seraphi protested.

Frankly, Balem was confused about the commotion that his spots had caused. He always had them for as long as he could remember. Feeling worried about all the fuss regarding spots, he curled up tightly against his mother and hugged her as hard as he could. However, she seemed determined to make as big a fuss about the spots as she could and pushed him aside.

He couldn't sleep because of the fuss over his spots. Deep in the night, he hurried over to where Amina kept a small mirror in a drawer, and got it out so he could see his own reflection in the glass by moonlight. He saw the spots and tried to rub them off with a small handkerchief, and then with his little finger. Ultimately, he tried scratching them off but all it did was just cause an awful rash on his skin. By morning, he was so tired that he curled up on the carpeted floor and fell asleep.

He was still sleeping when his parents brought a medicina to look at him. This man was a human, but of comparatively lower rank than the Entitled nobility. The medicina examined him for awhile, and took a blood sample which was fed into a small scanner-type device he had brought with him before handing him back to his parents.

"No, he is not ill. Unfortunately, probably as a result of his genetic sequencing, he is prone to freckling. His skin does not have the kind of sun-protection that most other children have. He will have to stay out of the sun."

This was the first time he saw his mother burst into tears. His father put a hand on her arm to comfort her.

"But these 'freckles' look like age spots," she blubbered.

The researcher inclined his head, "There are similarities, but I assure you, they are a natural condition and is no indication of rapid aging."

"Is it curable?" his sire asked.

"I am sorry to say that this is a matter of genetic sequencing and cannot be reversed."

His father swore angrily, "I will SUE the birthing facility!"

Fortunately, Balem was napping for most of the medical examination, he only woke when the medicina gave his diagnosis. From then on, Amina had thick curtains installed on the windows of his nursery and kept them closed in the day. She never allowed him outside especially when it was a sunny day and rubbed a lot of whitish lotions on his skin to "help protect it."

Unfortunately for Balem, his entire world was thrown into deep shadow. He only came out of the shelter of the rooms in the family residence at night and when he did see his mother, she always looked at him with a scowl on her face. He later discovered, when he was taking a bath, that he had spots too on the rest of his body, even his pale butt. He ultimately had the servants install mirrors in his bathroom so he could examine himself. Also, he made all attending servants leave the bathroom whenever he had a bath. Although it was customary for Entitled to have attendants when taking a bath, Balem preferred to be alone.

Amina tried all kinds of treatments to lighten the spots. She once scrubbed him with lemons and at one point. Over time, he lost the initial tan he had acquired frolicking out in the sun when he was a toddler. He became extremely pale and his freckles started to fade a little.

The next time his mother paid the Abrasax residence a long visit was when Balem was around 8 years old. His freckles had faded somewhat, but still lightly dotted his face and the rest of his body. A few days before she came, Amina packed some bags with his clothes and belongings. They waited in the marble hall adjoining the landing pad on the night his mother was scheduled to arrive. When her transport touched down on the landing pad, the door opened, but his mother did not step out. Amina led him to the transport and as soon as their bags were loaded onto it, the transport took off.

"You are going into space," Amina told him as they were flying through the air. "Your parents are bringing you to a special research facility where they will try to fix your skin condition."

He did not really pay attention to what his nanny was saying, because the thought of going to space was exciting and something that he never thought he would be able to do before he was in his teens. He jumped up to the window and watched as the transport zoomed past a huge city before docking at a space port and he walked out of it and onto a platform that led to his family's vessel.

On the vessel, he would stand by the huge observation window and watch as the planet of Calidan got smaller and smaller the further away they went from it. He loved seeing the big round, blue orb of Calidan from space. It was so large and yet so small at the same time. This was a thing that he loved to do even when he was a multi-millenia old patriarch of his house.

They travelled in this vessel for several days, however, in all that time, he hardly saw his mother. His father came by quite often to see how he was doing and to play with him, but he almost never saw Seraphi until they arrived on Quarere, an ice planet where the research facility was located. When they arrived, the administrators took him away from his family and Amina and put him through days of testing where all kinds of samples were taken from him.

Finally, on the fifth day, Amina came and got him. Terribly exhausted from the entire ordeal of being prodded and poked for days by machines, he had a warm bath and then a good long nap. When he awoke, he dressed and she took him to one of the offices. She held him in her arms, while his parents talked with the medicina in charge of his case.

"Is there nothing that can be done with his skin?" his mother asked.

"Freckles can be lightened by certain chemical products and covered with cosmetics, but to prevent them from forming, he should ideally never be out in the open without some form of sun-protection," the doctor replied. After a short and sad pause, "He began again. There is something else I must tell you, I feel it would be remiss of me if I kept it quiet."

Seraphi covered her face. She was starting to tear again.

"In a genetic analysis of his sequencing," the doctor began, "I discovered that he has an inherited genetic condition. Your son has till now been healthy, has he not?"

"He is a very healthy child!" his father declared.

The doctor lowered his voice a little, trying to make it sound as gentle as he could, "He will develop a chronic nose and throat condition. He was born with weak lungs. This condition will come into effect in the next few years."

"We should have gone to another birthing facility!" his mother was visibly distressed.

"Your majesty," the doctor continued. "I doubt that another birthing facility would have been able to correct his defects. You are quite lucky that he has been born with so few flaws. Genetically speaking, the pairing was not ideal. The chances of genetic abnormality are just too high given both your DNA sequences."

His mother cried so bitterly that Balem broke free from his nanny's arms and ran towards her. He pulled at her skirts and buried his face in the folds of her glittering gown.

The medicina coughed uncomfortably, "There is always a Redo. After all, he is still below the age of being officially Recognised as your heir?"

Despite not knowing what the words meant, Balem remembered the doctor's words keenly. A Redo meant that his parents would scrap him like so much garbage and try again with another child. He would be put to sleep and end up as genetic material stored in a tube which would then be presented to his noble family. Despite his young age, he was intelligent enough to know what it meant.

"No Redo!" he screamed out loudly and repeatedly, holding onto his mother.

He did not remember much about what happened next, except that Amina came over and fell on her knees, and said a few words to Seraphi. After that, his mother held him in her arms and said that they will keep him because he was such a good boy. Then she quickly handed him to his nanny, like he was a contaminant.


	2. Running Away

The Days of Eternity

"_Humans… Can become anything." – "Monster" anime (2004)_

_Author's Note:  
I have no idea how "Shive" is spelt… if someone knows, please let me know. It was mentioned in the movie and consists of some kind of tablet with pics or words. My spelling is taken from the Middle English word meaning a fragment or sliver._

_I am uncertain how people would respond to this particular version of Balem. I mean, if I were Seraphi, and I were looking for someone to pass over my company to as an heir, I would certainly have the geneticists engineer my kid to be….  
1\. Smart/genius (IQ level 140 and above surely….)  
2\. Have strong sense of taking initiative.  
3\. Leadership qualities.  
This would mean a certain amount of self-will and rebelliousness… I never thought an obedient, unquestioning child would make any sort of decent leader…. In fact most leader types should have a strong internal locus of control…. Er this mean… not letting fate or "luck" get the better of them in life…  
_

_I don't know if Seraphi was actually prepared to deal with the type of personality. I mean, many people say without thinking too hard that they would like certain types of qualities in their children, but in the end, if they do have kids with those qualities, are often not prepared for the consequences.  
_

_Glossary:_  
_1\. Spork/foon – combination fork-spoon utensil. Go wikipedia for a pic of this thing, it's a real, current item and I kind of came across it because a food seller where I live introduced this utensil to reduce plastic waste._

* * *

After his return to Calidan from the Quarere research facility, Seraphi had him moved to an austere residence owned by his family on Nixus 35, a cold world that was located a little too far from its planetary sun. While not perpetually frozen, it was a cold place that saw very little sunlight. A regular day on Nixus was cloudy with a constant drizzle of feathery raindrops. There were no blue skies or sunlight, except for one or two days in a single planetary year and the Abrasax residence on Nixus was literally hermetically sealed and heated, with special dehumidifiers to keep out the dampness.

He clearly remembered his first day viewing the Nixus residence. It was framed by craggy hills. The residence was built partially inside the hill itself. Amina said that it was once an old mine which the Abrasaxes bought and then refurbished into a grand palace with smooth, grey granite walls and strong steel doors. It was at least a few millennia old and had special main doors that enabled the entire palace, or complex to be hermetically sealed from the weather outside.

He was assigned a room without any windows. However, it was rather large and had drapings of brocade. The bed however was an ordinary one with silk or satin sheets and large pillows. There was no anti-grav function because the Abrasaxes seldom came to Nixus 35 and thus never had the anti-grav installed. Besides, anti-grav beds were only found in the houses of mid or high tier nobles on Orous and worlds that were located nearby. His room and most of the rooms in the living area were lit by silver, crystal chandeliers with yellow or white-yellow lighting. It was like being in a world of perpetual twilight. When he was deep inside the residence, he did not know if it was day or night.

Despite the grandeur of his home, Balem thought it looked like a tomb. He felt like the unwanted child that was sent here to be locked away, hidden from everyone, because of how he looked. He personally liked Calidan a lot better. He loved the blue water of the nearby lake and sunny skies. He tried to find a room with some kind of window, and when he did find one eventually, he looked out onto a grey, cold landscape that was awash with rainwater. There was virtually nothing to see on Nixus. The landscape consisted mostly of rolling hills and damp marshlands.

That was where he stayed, with only a staff of servants and his deer-splice nanny, Amina. Of course his mother did not stay with him, she had a vast interstellar empire to run. He also never saw his "sire" or father because Seraphi broke off all ties with him since the day she found out that he was genetically incompatible with her. Seraphi wanted perfect progeny, no matter her feelings towards Balem's tall and magnificent sire, he would not do. She sent him away and took out an injunction against him in the courts preventing him from ever seeing Balem. She cried for almost a week after she sent him away. She said that he was the love of her life.

However, a love who could not sire a perfect son was not a desirable match. The geneticists said that he was weak and that his bloodline was prone to physical weakness and maybe even madness. There was even a moment in her past when Seraphi considered taking Balem's sire as her husband. He was magnificent to behold, so tall and graceful, with striking red hair. She had hoped their children would be magnificent as well.

Since it was generally cold on Nixus, Balem almost never went outside. Most of his days were spent in monotonous similarity. He would wake up early, eat a specially prepared breakfast and then commence studying with a private tutor in the family employ. Amina made sure that they had a cook who knew how to prepare the meals that he needed. The food was always much the same. It was fairly tasteless because Amina made sure that they got the best produce and it was always cooked carefully to optimally preserve all the food's nutrient value. This meant a lot of steaming and boiling at controlled temperatures. In Balem's point of view, everything tasted like chopped liver. There was never anything sweet or creamy or even fried. Amina had banned all manner of sweets from his table. He coughed a lot and she was worried that anything with too much sugar might aggravate his bad throat.

Every meal seemed somewhat the same and there were always three meals daily. On his plate, there was always a few similar mounds of the same kind of food; a mound of some kind of meat, which was sometimes minced, especially when he was sick and did not feel like eating anything. Or cooked in strips. The most common meat that he saw usually came from a marine creature. Nixus was a planet that had a huge abundance of water bodies and fish, eels, and some kind of tentacled marine creature were common. He actually welcomed the sight of a pink, broiled slice of tentacle, because it had a different texture and taste than the usual meat that was served up. Then there was a mound of some kind of starch, depending on the world they were on. Grains were rather rare on Nixus, so his starch mound looked like a grey-yellow mess of something. It was likely some kind of tuber or starchy fruit that grew in the rainy climate of the planet. Sometimes when he was lucky the cook was able to obtain some form of extra starchy carbohydrate, and this was made into tiny dumplings which looked like partially flattened spheres and were slightly chewy. It was a change from the usual messes of pureed, mashed or ground thing. The vegetables always looked like vegetables. They were readily available on every world. On Nixus, they mostly resembled fibrous vines, which Amina said were very good for him, although they were very bitter and he thoroughly disliked it. The only thing that made his food bearable was the fact that everyone around him ate the same thing.

Although he hated the taste of everything his staff made for him, the food must have been nutritious because he always felt tremendous amounts of energy and his staff were comparatively healthy and seldom sick. However, he remained a very small and short child. Amina was concerned that he would not grow into an impressive size, that is to say, a tall person, and frequently measured him with a tape measure she carried around with her.

Balem felt like some kind of animal that his family was breeding. He was measured, weighed, tested, and Amina fussed over how much he grew or did not. He had seen holographic films of farmers on other planets breeding some kind of bovine or porcine creature and they did somewhat the same thing with the beasts.

"Food is not for enjoyment," she often said to him. "We eat to live and to live healthily. You must take in all that is needed for your optimal health and nothing more. Life is discipline and you must discipline yourself. Fate was unkind to you and made you weak, you must grow strong through discipline… You must fight your destiny."

She repeated the same phrase to him constantly, so much so that it became his reality. She made sure that he did not run around too much in the lonely hallways, for fear of aggravating his respiratory "condition".

She always sat with him when he was studying and made sure he was at his books at every opportunity he had. She always stressed the need for him to do his best and to achieve as much as he could, so that his mother would see what a success he was. Fortunately, his nanny did not limit the kind of information he could read or view. He would often steal her shive of the "Interstellar Enquirer", a tabloid publication that sometimes had pictures of his mother when she attended events. He learnt all types of things from the tabloids, his interest in it was focused on his mother and his family. He really wanted to know where she was and what she did. He would play holographic recordings of her at events so that he could see her. He noticed that his sire was never ever shown beside her at any public event, neither did he appear in previous articles. He also did not see Seraphi mention the fact that she had a child. He sometimes worried that he would disappear from the universe without anyone ever knowing he ever existed.

In spite of the miserable and solitary condition in which he lived, Amina tried to cheer him up by promising that if he was good, and did well in whatever task he was set, he could go back to Calidan to be with his mother. Also, when the sun went down every evening, she would schedule a "play time" for him. Amina brought him to a massive hall in his home with some servants. They played a few games with a ball and some rope. This was the only time where he played with anyone. He had no friends and met no one of his age. He enjoyed the games immensely and often hoped to be able to play often. Sometimes, he would sneak off in the middle of the day and use a piece of chalk to make drawings on the smooth, dark granite walls. It was always landscapes of Calidan with a huge lake and crude stick figures of himself playing in the sun with other small children.

**AT TWELEVE YEARS OF AGE:**

When he was 12, he took the interstellar examinations that was a common mark of academic achievement in the commonwealth of planets. When the results were known, he was so proud of his achievement. He was ranked no. 2 throughout the known universe.

Amina on the other hand was devastated when she heard the news. She broke down crying before him when she read the shive with the results.

"You cannot be second place," she stressed through her tears. "You should always strive to be no. 1. Please, you do not want her majesty to think that you are not the best of all. There are still some years before your Recognition as her heir. You MUST be the first primary of her empire. Please do not end up as a Redo."

Balem spent his young life in fear of the word "Redo". He did not want to be a tube of genetic goo in his mother's hands. He got down beside Amina and hugged her sobbing body tightly. Amina reminded him constantly that he could not, must not fail, he had to be the best, no matter what it was. After awhile, he was crying too, he had no idea why, since he had not done a single wrong thing. Life just seemed so unfair. He lived like a prisoner and felt like a beast or splice that his family was breeding. He hated his life and wanted to go away, far away to a world that was warm and sunny with big blue lakes and green forests that weren't always awash with rain.

**WHEN HE DECIDED TO RUN AWAY…**

That night, Balem packed a small bag with some clothes and put on a thick tunic with a hood made of water-resistant materials before escaping from the residence by climbing out one of the windows to the outside. Once out in the chilly atmosphere of Nixus he shivered from the damp cold. He made his way as fast as he could from the grey fortress that was his home. Once he felt he was far enough away so that he could not be spotted by the security team in his residence, he walked along the main road and hoped to find a transport that would take him into the city and the space port.

He walked along the road for hours and did not see any kind of transport. This was unsurprising as the Abrasax residence was located far away from most other residences and farms. Finally, after walking for hours in the darkness of the rainy, Nixan night, his way lit only by a glow-stick that he had brought along with him, Balem eventually reached a small farm that appeared to be growing some kind of gourd on massive vines. He went to the shed where the farmer kept his transport and climbed into the storage compartment of the vehicle that was filled with gourds ready for transport to the city market in the morning. Although the gourds were generally uncomfortable to lie down on, at least the vehicle was dry.

As he had anticipated, the farmer got into the vehicle a few hours later in the early hours of dawn and drove the vehicle along the long road to the city. The drive took well over an hour as the transport was quite slow. Eventually the vehicle stopped in a crowded square filled with other similar vehicles. Sensing that he had to leave quickly before someone spotted him, Balem jumped out of the vegetable storage container from behind and quietly made his way to the side of the square and down a narrow alley.

He did not know where he was, but looking at the city skyline, he spotted the tall launch towers of the spaceport and headed in that general direction. He navigated his way through dark streets and narrow alleys, always keeping the tall launch towers in his sight, until he arrived at the space port. He was quite lucky to have gotten this far without meeting any real danger, perhaps his own shabby attire diverted the attention of would be thieves and other low-life. However, he did see how some other beings in this universe lived. He spotted dirty, bearded men sleeping in cardboard shelters in the dark alleys and saw a family of splices huddled around a small fire cooking their meal out of cans. He realised after a short while that that was not the kind of life he would like to live.

However, there was no going back. Amina would likely have alerted his mother to his disappearance and then she'd send him to be Redone. No matter his fate, he did not want to be dead before he could grow his first real wrinkle. He knew that Seraphi had gotten rid of his sire - his father, from eavesdropping on conversations Amina had with his mother via FTL hologram. He had no idea who his father was and remembered a lesson where the tutor informed him that Orous was the capitol of the interstellar commonwealth. He looked at his family seal on the underside of his right forearm. The symbol glowed softly in the darkness of the street on which he stood. He realized that with his seal, the bureaucrats of Orous could help him find out the identity of his sire.

However, Orous was terribly far away and he only had enough resources, saved up from countless months of the allowance that he hardly ever used, to buy a ticket on an interstellar transport vessel to Calidan. He entered the spaceport and checked the screens to see if there was any ship at all going to Orous. He was terribly unlucky, there were no ships going out of the Nixan system at all. After scanning numerous screens and hiding from the port security whenever they passed by for about half an hour, he noticed that a particular ship, the Alekto, was enroute to Orous. Realizing that he would never be able to get a ticket on an interstellar ship, because of the sheer cost of interstellar travel, he walked around despondently wondering how he could come up with the additional resource needed for a ticket. He walked around for quite awhile, occasionally picking up loose change he found on the floor. Then he saw cases being loaded onto a hovercraft and noticed that the hovercraft were being driven to individual ships where dockworkers loaded the cargo onto the different ships.

He searched around and saw a hovercraft with "The Alekto" projected on a small plasma screen around the base of the craft. He quickly climbed into this craft and because he was of small size, managed to hide in the gaps between the stacked cases. Very miraculously, the cases did not fall on him, neither was he spotted by the workers who seemed to be in a hurry. He noticed that the hovercraft was travelling towards what looked like a legionnaire frigate, which he recognised from its mounted guns and missile ports. As the craft rounded the side of the ship, he realised that the Alekto was a military ship of some sort.

In the midst of the bustle, he slipped out of the craft and found himself a hiding corner in the cargo hold of the frigate. He did not have to wait too long before the ship took off. Although the cargo hold had no windows, he knew he was in space because of the change in gravity. He did not float around, but found that the artificial gravity to be comparatively weaker than on ships he had been on. With a single leap, he was able to propel himself upwards of a single storey and set foot on a landing that led to a door.

Jiggling on the handle, he was quite glad that the door was unlocked and he silently made his way through long, metal hallways till he came to a lighted corridor. As he walked, he made small chalk markings on the metal wall with a piece of chalk he had taken from his home, in case he needed to find his way back. From here, the smell of something cooking, led his way to a door with a window where he found a kitchen. He peeked through the window and waited till the cooks were done before quietly moving in. The truth was, he was terribly hungry and the little food he had packed in his bag was damp because of his long trek in the rainy night. He had not packed them in watertight containers, having never really packed anything in his life.

He opened up the cabinets and saw foil packets of some kind of food. He searched around and found some grey foil packets with dates and labels on them. He realised that it was likely some form of food used by the military because he recognised certain Nixan food items listed on the bag. He also guessed that the food probably mostly consisted of some form of either dry biscuits or hard bread, as those food items had a longer shelf life. He crossed his fingers and hoped that he would not find a bag consisting of dried Nixan vines, which he hated.

He took as many of these packets as he could, occasionally inspecting packets for dates of expiration. He also found a large, grey canteen which he filled up with water from the tap on the sink.

A noise from the other door to this kitchen informed him that he had to leave. Balem hurried back to the cargo hold to inspect the items that he had pilfered.

He took one of the grey packets and tore it open, wondering how long he could survive on dry bread before he choked on it. He really had not expected to be making an interstellar journey this way, so had not packed too much food in his little bag.

Amazingly the grey foil packed emptied out into many smaller foil packets. There was an obvious transparent bag that was large and contained a single hard, whitish disk of something that looked inedible. In the other bags, he found biscuits, bread, mini packets of some kind of dried meat, a foon and a squishy large bag that was labelled with food items, one of which was the tentacled marine creature he was familiar with.

In spite of his apprehension with things foreign to his daily life, he tore open the squishy packet and found a lot of soft, starchy cube-like things in a reddish brown sauce which contained bits of the tentacles. Sniffing it suspiciously, he found that it smelt rather delicious. As he scooped up a cube, he wondered if the food was raw, remembering that the Legion heavily relied on lycantant splices. Nibbling carefully, he found that they reminded him of the dumplings made by his own cook.

Although it was generally salty, he actually felt that it, whatever it was, was the best meal he had in his life, because it tasted like something other than the bland, "chopped liver" he always had. Over time, he discovered that the foil packets contained different types of meals and that the transparent bag was really a flameless heater, where a bit of water from his canteen combined with the white, inedible chemical disk caused an exothermic reaction that resulted in boiling water.

Despite burning his fingers the first few times he tried the heating system, he soon figured out a way to warm up his meals by propping the bag against one of the boxes.

Personally Balem was starting to feel that legionaires had a much better life than he had. They travelled around to many planets and did not eat tasteless, bland meals. He even tried the dried, heavily spiced meat, which turned out to be terribly addictive. He saved many packets of this food item for when the ship landed on Orous and he had to flee in a hurry.

After what seemed like a few days of travel, he had explored enough of the ship to figure out how he could make his trip more comfortable by locating the bathrooms and places where he could quickly wash up during the "night cycle" when most of the crew was asleep.

Balem was actually rather amazed that he was able to get this far without his staff. That he could live without the assistance of anyone. His own little mind began to hatch a plan, one where he would be able to find freedom from his family and from being Redone and turned into a tube of genetic goo.

The only thing that would have made this trip better would have been a warm blanket and a pillow. He spent most "nights" either lying on the floor or leaning against boxes in the cargo hold. Sometimes, he cried softly for Amina, and because he was lonely, afraid and lost. At times like that, he felt like going up to a member of the crew to say that he wanted to go home. However, he reasoned that his mother would be tremendously angry with him and that would be it, he would be put to sleep and turned into goo. Fear for his own life prevented him from giving himself up.

After about a week, he started to explore other levels in the ship. He really wanted to find a pillow and a warm blanket. It would make sleeping a lot easier.

His exploration of the upper levels of the ship uncovered a series of spartan bunks. However, he did not take any of the pillows or blankets because he thought they had a rather distinctive "doggy" odour. Finally, after a lot of searching and hiding from crewmembers walking around, that he finally chanced on a rather fancy room that smelled clean and had, to his utter amazement, an anti-grav bed!

He went over the switched on the anti-grav and proceeded to bounce around in the zero-gravity field. He laughed for a bit, in an attempt to forget his own misery.

He forgot to shut the door, which was a lesson he would remember for the rest of his life, because the doorway was suddenly filled with a lot of shocked and angry people. Balem froze in mid bounce and quickly jumped off the bed. Soon, people filled up the room, and Balem made a mad, zig-zag dash around them to get out, but a strong hand from one of the guards grabbed at the collar of his shirt.

"Let go!" he screamed loudly. Several of the onlookers put their hands to their ears. Balem knew that many of the servants jumped to attention when he screamed. He would scream loudly whenever he threw a tantrum, just to make them do what he wanted. There was something about the pitch or maybe the timbre of his voice that caused people to cower before him.

There was a moment of chaos and a lot of shouting before everyone quieted down and Balem shut up because he felt hoarse from screaming.

"My lord," the guard thrust Balem towards someone who had just entered the room. "We have a stowaway."

Balem saw a man in the clothing of a medicina. He looked upwards defiantly at this new person and then cried out in relief.

"Papa!"


	3. The House of Astra

The Days of Eternity

_Author's Note:_

"_You don't love someone because they're perfect, you love them in spite of the fact that they're not."_ _– Jodi Picoult "My Sister's Keeper" _

_Author's Note:_

_I kind of thought about Balem's dad's house, Astra… as being a bit like the Stark family in the Marvel comic universe. Brilliant scientists BUT, unlike the Starks, not so brilliant at business…_

_I significant;y added new material and decided to expand on the universe because it is almost impossible to do a fic about a completely new universe without names and characters of people other than the Abrasaxes... I mean.. who are their rivals? Alies? "friends"?_

_There are certain distinct changes in this version of the original backstory… because I felt it would make things more complete._

_Glossary:  
Quaesitor (pl. Quaesitors) –What researchers are called in the universe of Jupiter Ascending.  
_

* * *

**BALEM RUNS AWAY… CON'T**

It was the last person he expected to see on his trip away from home. However, the face of his father was more than welcome for the little kid. He jumped into his father's arms and held on for dear life, crying buckets. There was a slight pause, a moment that lasted like what seemed an eternity, and then his father patted him on the back.

"I don't want to go back to Nixus, papa," Balem whined.

Balem's father sent everyone out of the room and then shut the door. He looked at Balem and asked, "What's the matter, son?"

Balem sat down, curled up in his chair and cried non-stop, telling him about how much he hated Nixus and his life, and being afraid of getting Redone.

"I am not an animal or splice!" he cried.

His father did not say a word, instead, got him into the shower and put him into a set of fresh clothes before allowing him to curl up and sleep for a good long while. Although he was sleeping in an anti-grav field, he grabbed onto a pillow tightly for comfort.

His father was gone when he awoke. Instead he saw a rat splice who had the most amazing white, prominent incisors.

"Good evening, young master. Your father has assigned me to tend to your needs while things are being arranged for your stay. I am Duplicitous Wiles, your father's legal counsel and assistant," this rat splice greeted him. "It is almost time for supper. What would you like to have?"

"There is this type of meat on Nixus," he replied. "I do not know if you have it... it is often served broiled..."

"What is it called?"

"I think the Nixans call it Kra-ken..."

The rat splice's eyes grew as large as dinner plates, then he said, "Perhaps you would like to choose something else, sir."

"You do not have it?"

"Oh no... we have great stocks of it... it is after all a very common Nixan marine species.. its just, very VERY COMMON... we feed it to the crew and the lycantant legionaires on board with us... surely you want something more refined.. how about a nice... Beee-eeef steak?"

"What in the cosmos is that?"

"Meat from a bovine species... we have very prime cuts of the creature."

"No," Balem replied. "I'd much rather have Kraken.. a nice pink tentacle... broiled..."

The rat splice's brows shot up till they hit his very high hairline.

"As you wish," the rat bowed. "Although I think you might want to try the other things we have on board…"

His stay on board the Alekto was possibly one of the most enjoyable periods of his childhood. He was a very curious child and would go around to all the labs on board the Alekto to watch what the quaesitors were doing, he was fascinated with everything that was new and unusual. Duplicitous had informed him the Alekto was built as a medical frigate for the legion and that it was later refurbished as a research vessel.

He eventually chose to spend time with his father helping him to pot unusual vines that were acquired on Nixus. The plant was a strange, silvery-white colour with tiny blue flowers that seemed to sparkle like stars in the night.

"Natural bioluminescence," his father said, as he turned off the lights once to show off the blue lights of this vine. "The natives of Nixus were using it as a form of traditional medicine… I was curious…"

"Are you a medicina? Why would you want to be a medicina? Isn't that a low-born profession?" he asked once while potting a vine.

"No, actually I am a quaesitor," he replied. "It's been the business of my family, to pursue knowledge… "

"I thought the Astras built frigates and battleships…"

"Yes, it has been a very profitable business, in recent years… which has to be maintained for the good of the house…" Balem thought he looked rather pained saying it.

"Son," he put his hands on Balem's small shoulders. "No work that is honourable is low… we have always worked in the search of knowledge because we enjoy it… House Astra is abundant in knowledge… "

"But not so wealthy … in cash…" Balem remarked softy.

"Sadly," his father sighed. "Not all knowledge that is useful to humankind is also profitable…"

"I thought all the Entitled houses were wealthy and powerful…" Balem exclaimed.

"All the Entitled houses were founded because the original lords were masters of their field," his father replied. "The Astras were great in knowledge, the Bellis, who manage the legion, were mighty warlords… The… Abrasax…. were great heads of commercial enterprise… and so on…"

"We ARE wealthy and powerful, Balem," his father added and then told him what was possibly the greatest secret in the known universe.

"My son, that is your legacy, no one can ever take it away from you. But for my sake and the sake of your mother, you must never let anyone know."

His father picked up a cotton swab, dipped it into an amber bottle with some kind of watery fluid and applied it to the wrinkles at the corners of his eye. Almost like magic, the wrinkles disappeared and his skin smoothened out.

Balem was stunned. "BUT!", he cried out in amazement, "But only mother knows the secret formula!"

His father smiled.

"But if what you say is true, how come the Astras don't make ReGenX? You would be so rich… and mother… she would have to take you back!"

His father sighed deeply, "Wealth that comes at the cost of so many, really, isn't worth enjoying… And… the word of an Astra is our bond… my word, to Seraphi…."

Balem did not really understand what he was saying about the high cost. Amina mentioned it to him once that a particular ingredient used in the formula cost a lot of resources to produce, but she never mentioned what it was.

"So why is your family a military contractor? Isn't that going to hurt a lot of people?"

"The family was horribly against going into the business of being a military contractor," he remarked. "But since finances were so dire, I persuaded your uncles to allow some of our house's technology to be used for defense purposes… I reasoned we could build better and safer ships, better protection for the legionaires… There was a lot of resistance, but the frigates have proven to be rather useful vessels for our house's goals."

"Well," Balem said after their long chat. "I think when I grow up, I will be a medicina or a quaesitor…"

His father laughed, "I think your mother has other plans for you."

"Well," Balem exclaimed, "I don't know what they are, Amina says I am to be her heir or whatever it is, I don't like being a businessman… it really sounds horrible! I am a prisoner on Nixus, because Amina never lets me out and I think mother has me sent there because I'm a horrible, flawed monster…"

He burst out crying.

His father hugged him tightly.

"Balem, you are absolutely perfect! Don't worry too much about the freckles, they fade over time if you remember to apply sun protection lotions, and… your cousin Marcus has them in spades!"

"Is…. Is Marcus a prisoner on some desolate world?"

"No, he lives with your uncle and aunt on Orous," his father added. "No, he does not bother to hide his freckles. It makes him a very unique-looking Entitled. He is quite jealous of that fact and doesn't want anyone else to have them."

When he was not talking to his father to running around the ship inspecting every new thing he saw or reading his father's shives, Balem talked to Duplicitous Wiles. He wanted to know everything there was to know about his father's noble family.

"Actually, your father's a recurrence," the rat splice remarked one day. "He's Cade Astra III, the second recurrence of the original Cade Astra, back when Orousians were bound only to their planetary system. Well, Cade Astra the Original was the founder of the House of Astra, since your father is his recurrence, it makes him the house patriarch, in spite of his relatively young age."

"How old is father?"

"About 47…"

"He seems a bit… wrinkly….doesn't he use any ReGenX?"

"No…" the rat splice replied. "Many of House Astra have chosen not to undergo ReGenX regeneration… it goes against everything they believe in and hold dear…"

"So they'd rather… die?"

"Well…. Thankfully, they have a much higher rate of recurrence than most other Houses. Many members of the house believe that the miracle of recurrence is the universe's means of continuing existence… The family are noted adherents of the Cosmic Way…"

This sort of thinking was quite alien to Balem, even terribly illogical, but he decided to find out more about it instead of rejecting it outright.

The Cosmic Way was the official spiritual belief system of the commonwealth. Although most stellar humans had long abandoned the worship of gods made of wood, stone or metal, most stellar humans believed in the Cosmic Way's principles. Long ago, the Cosmic Mind, that is to say the original creator of the universe, laid down universal laws upon which the cosmos might function. There was a "Right Way" for things to be done so that the universe might function. The ancients called it "Ma'at."

It was said that when the Cosmic Mind made all creatures, it created humans to rule over all of its creation. This was because it programmed into the human race the information needed to evolve to unspecified limits. It was because of this that humans and not any other race, uncovered the secrets of life, so that only pure-blooded humans could limitlessly extend their life. Thus, only pure-blooded humans could be Entitled, for they were born to rule.

Every being had its place in the universe and should a being decide not to fulfil its purpose, things would spin out of order and there would be chaos. Also this being would wander around, desolate and lost, if it chose not to fulfil the purpose of its birth. Thus lycantants are best and happiest when they are warriors, deer-splice are happiest as housekeepers and care-givers and bee-splice, when they serve those of royal blood. Of course, the Entitled are best and happiest when they rule over others. The purity and power of their blood depends on their ancient bloodline, those of the strongest Entitled bloodline, the first tier nobles are best able to rule and keep the order of the universe. Indeed, it was demanded by the Cosmic Mind that they take up the responsibility of rulership, thus it gave the ancient nobility of Orous the information, encoded in their DNA to rule.

Which bloodine an Entitled belongs to depends entirely on their DNA. An Entitled or in fact ANY being can come from anywhere. In its infinite wisdom, The Cosmic Mind allowed the ancient rulers to return, so that the future might benefit from the wisdom encoded in their genetic memories. This was discovered by human scientists long ago, that when an exact sequence of DNA appeared in space-time, it shared not just the skills and talents of the original, but also on occasion, the original's memories. In all the universe, the Cosmic Mind made DNA eternal, that it cannot be destroyed, but occur in endless wonderful combinations on a million worlds.

Thus it is that humans live and die, only to live again, when the same sequence of DNA appears in a particular space-time.

This particular belief was quite widespread and the central location of devotion to the Cosmic Mind was at the Cosmic Temple on Orous, the central world of the commonwealth.

Balem read a little about the Cosmic Way from shives that were on the Alekto, for some strange reason, he found the ideas to be rather interesting. He did not disagree with it entirely, neither did he agree without question. He wondered why any being would choose death when endless life was a possibility that was within easy reach, for those with the cash. Certainly, despite being mid-tier nobles with limited resources, they could still well afford ReGenX. For, if the Mind did not intend for humans to limitlessly prolong their existence, why then did it allow humans to discover the secrets of DNA and ReGenX? Why is it that human beings, and only human beings are able to endlessly extend their life, and not any other species of aliens?

He had many questions. However, one thing was quite clear to him. He preferred to live with his father. He hated Nixus and the whole business about being his mother's "heir." He was no "heir," he was merely a tool created for his mother to fulfil her will. He was no better than a common splice.

As the Alekto neared Orous, he wondered if it was at all possible to move away from his mother and live with his father. He did not like the idea of constantly living under the threat of being Redone. His own life was worth less than the life of a lycantant legionnaire. Forever subject to his mother's whim and expectations. He cried often when no one was around.

Finally, one day, the day before they landed on Orous, he spoke with his father.

"Papa," he said quietly at supper. "I want to come and live with you. I won't be a bother, I will work very hard in whatever place you decide to put me to work at to learn my keep. I will… I will change my name… "

"Duplicitous Wiles is looking into this," Cade replied.

Things did not turn out quite so well for Balem and his father. They docked at the bureaucratic offices of Orous to fill out forms for the transfer of Balem to his father, but as soon as the pair stepped onto the docking bay, officers of the Aegis appeared and handcuffed his father, charging him with the kidnapping of one Balem Abrasax.


End file.
